Why yes...

we did give our child a cardboard box for Christmas :)

And she was delighted!

I am not in the least bit ashamed to say that this was her main Christmas gift from us. She loves it! Still. Don't worry, it wasn't her only present. There are more boxes in various sizes in the heater closet. We also gave her the "If you Give a Mouse..." book series.

What do you do when your toddler wakes up at midnight..?

I'm sure there was a very good reason for the Jelly Bean waking up at 12am, not wanting to go back to sleep, not wanting to play and not even wanting to cuddle...I don't know what it was. But this is what we did:

I blogged, did some nutrition research, and dried some sprouted wheat. She spent equal amounts of this almost four hour time slot watching DW-TV (that's the German News) and Food Network. Is she my child? Do you have to ask that question? :)

Note: I don't know how I was with TV as a child. I only remember that I never really liked cartoons. She's never really watched TV. (Though we very rarely have it on - we're not TV people) She is allowed to watch one episode of Baby Signing Time (appr. 35 total minutes) every day. Unless it's an especially hectic and stressful day, in which case she's been known to watch it twice in a row. She's watched the occasional part of a movie with us or the babysitter, I'm sure. We don't mind. But usually nothing keeps her attention. Of course, if I let her, she'd probably watch Baby Signing Time just about all day. She loves it! 

 Well, I don't know that you can call the news educational, but it was surprisingly refreshing to hear the German, and a lot more uplifting than watching the American news. Actually, I started getting homesick for Germany.

I think you get what you give. I hear I was a pretty good child. But since I didn't seem to find a need to sleep much through high school and university, and Conrad can't function on less than 8 hours of sleep a night, I'm thinking she inherited this not-so-stellar-sleeping pattern from me? 

the great escape: attempt #1

"I would really like to go outside. Pretty please."

"Hmmmm"

"This could work."

"See ya later, Mom"

For obvious reasons I didn't get the next picture...

As Promised

Ooh, pumpkin seeds are sticky. This is a whole new level of fun.

One left.

Do you see where she decided to place that last seed..?

And just in case you're wondering. That pumpkin provided: three large pumpkin pies (the healthiest and tastiest I've ever made - I'll post the recipe later) one very large batch of soup, a dozen muffins, a bunch of seeds for stir fry, and 1 hour toddler fun. And there was pumpkin to spare. Oh and it was fresh from the garden in Ephraim :)

excuses

Normally I don't have one. Well, I always have at least one. Her name is Emma Ruth. She's almost as big as me, makes 5 times as much mess as I do, exponentially increases the time required to do just about everything, and has figured out how to miraculously propel us into the future. Conrad calls her our little time machine. You spend five minutes with her, and when you're done, you find you've lost at least 15.

But this time, we've actually been very busy with various things. Conrad is busy with school and work, as always. He has two jobs (sometimes three) and I tutor German on Saturdays. We are working on a nutrition website. At the moment, it's entirely for us. Someday we hope to share it. I'm working on something else. It may will be a while before it's ready.

And---I'm going to get my Master of Nutrition Therapy degree :)

I'll keep you updated. Maybe. I'll try, ok?

Don't worry. It's going to take a long time.

I mean, who needs to rush when you've got help like this?

She was very helpful. Until the pumpkin was finally cleaned. Then she started putting all of the seeds and pulp back into the pumpkin.